Logan was in his office when he received an urgent call from the mansion.
Briar was back, and it just happened that the kids overheard about the marriage between the two of them and had an altercation.
Now Briar had locked herself in her room and had refused to come out ever since then.
As Logan returned to the mansion, his temples throbbed.
Just how did things turn out this way?
He promised Briar to tell the kids when she returned. Unfortunately, the beans got spilled and now there was a deadly tension in the house.
When he arrived, he found the kids in the living room looking very gloomy.
He didn't even have time to go upstairs to check on Briar. His priority when excluding work was his children.
He needed to understand how this whole scenario happened from the kids first before checking on Briar.
There was this statement that once you gain a stepmother, automatically you gain a stepfather. He didn't want to be seen as such in his children's eyes.
They mattered more to him than any other person out there. And he wanted them to understand that.
When the kids saw their father, they nervously greeted him, knowing fully that they had messed up.
Their father might scold them for what had happened earlier.
"Good evening, Dad!"
"Good day, Dad!"
"Evening, Father!"
Logan returned the greetings as he sat on his exclusive couch. "Um. I am fine. Thank you for asking. How was your day?" relaxing himself from the crazy tension of the day.
The kids, seeing their father so easily to talk to, heaved with relief before they started responding energetically.
Logan didn't mention anything about Briar for a while and just interacted with them. Asking about their day and school.
After a moment of chatting relaxingly like that, Logan decided that it was time to talk about serious business. However, he needed to share this news in a way that wouldn't make the kids look at Briar as if she were the bad guy.
He had heard of how the kids thought of Briar when they heard about the marriage. Honestly, Briar was wronged in this matter. No wonder why she was so angry. It's been years since he saw an angry Briar.
With his elbows propped on his knees, Logan looked at the kids as he asked, "Kids, by now, you should have heard the news that I married your nanny. Is that true?" his gaze shifting from one kid to another.
The three of them looked at each other before looking at their father, responding in unison, "Yes, we heard it earlier!" without lying about it.
Logan, seeing how truthful his kids were, smiled at them. Very proud of their ethics. It would be bad if kids start lying at their age when they could just say it as it is.
"That's good. I wanted to talk about this matter once your nanny was back. But I guess that it still came out and from what I heard, in a bad way!" Logan continued as he looked at his kids, gauging their responses.
The kids didn't say a thing, but lowered their heads, probably recalling that moment.
"I will tell you about it as your father, and if there is anything that you don't understand, you ask me and I will do my best to explain it to you. Do you understand me?" Logan asked the three.
These kids were his flesh and blood. Rather than hiding the truth behind the marriage to them, he wanted to let them know.
He understood that it was hard for children to accept a new person as their mother, especially in families like them. There were a lot of gold diggers who wanted nothing to do with the kids but wanted money. When they want something, they would use the kids and ditch them when they lose their use.
He didn't want something like that happening. By letting them know the real relationship between him and Briar, at least they would have some compassion or rather live with each other harmoniously without looking at Briar in the way that they were doing.
Briar deserves much better than that.
"I am sorry that I didn't tell you about this matter before and after it happened. I should have talked to you about the marriage issue and at least heard your opinion. Unfortunately, it has already happened, so we need to talk about it now!" with his hands clasped, Logan sincerely talked with his children.
When the three saw how serious their father was, they couldn't help but sit straight, eager to listen if there was some plot twist to this matter.
"Your nanny, how long have you known her?" however, rather than the continuation of the explanation, Logan asked them a question.
Lyra's brows furrowed, wondering why her father was asking that question, but she still answered truthfully.
Nanny had always been an advocate of promoting truthfulness in the house. So, lying wasn't something that she could do easily.
"It's been ten years! She came when I was eight years old!"
Cade opened his mouth to answer as well, "I was three years old."
And Tiana refused to be left out as she added, "I have known her my whole life!"
Which was true.
Tiana was born when Briar was already in the house and when Selena passed, the only mother figure she knew and was close to was Briar.
Logan smiled as he listened to the kids, who answered truthfully to his question and asked again, "Then can you tell me your nanny's character? How did she treat you from the day you knew her? Was she bad to you? Did you ever see her acting promiscuously or anything like that? Let's discuss her, shall we?"
Rather than forcing his children to accept Briar as their contracted mother of three years, he wanted them to recall how she was a good candidate for this arrangement.
He just needed them to remember it and look at her objectively without any mix-ups with other women out there.
When that question was asked, the first person to respond enthusiastically was Tiana.
"Second mother is the best person I have ever met. She played with me, bathed me, fed me food, and sang me lullabies every day. She even sends and picks me up from school most of the time. And she cooks me good food which keeps me healthy. Second mother is truly the best!" Tiana's eyes shined as she bragged about her second mother, the title she was used to calling other than nanny.
Lyra, hearing those praises, couldn't help but think about Briar's image in her head as well.
"She took care of us sincerely when we were young. She had always played with us, kept us company, cooked for us, coaxed us when we were angry. When we were sick, she always stayed with us all night to look after us. It wasn't just us, she also took care of mother. When mother gave birth to Tiana, she literally raised Tiana. And when mother fell sick. It was her who diligently stayed by her side while taking care of us at the same time!" the more Lyra recalled all the things that Briar had done for them, her voice lowered until she spoke in a murmur, guilt overwhelming her.
If she was to be truthful, she could genuinely say that there wasn't a day when Briar overstepped her boundaries. Unlike the other women and that aunt of theirs who always threw themselves at their father and smiled at them in front of him, but when he wasn't around, showed their fangs. Briar was a good person.
And when thinking about this and comparing it to the words she had spoken, Lyra looked at her father with teary eyes.
"Father, I messed up, didn't I?" she couldn't help but dejectedly asked her father, thinking about how badly she did it back then.